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We may not hear this word used that often anymore, but we sure are glad that this budding startup might bring a little snippet of the old Dalmatian dialect back to the forefront! Katriga is the name of the startup this article will focus on, but it is also the word every “old-school” Dalmatian will use when saying – chair.
Founded at the end of 2020 by the creative and entrepreneurial Hrvoje Bogdanović, Katriga’s main focus is producing smart furniture. Hence the name! 🙂
Many in Split’s tech community might know Hrvoje from many of the meetups he attended. The initial idea was to network more to find a collaborator for Katriga. However, as the case may be when it comes to our budding tech community – the networking was amazing and other great ideas were born!
That doesn’t mean Katriga is no more, quite the contrary! If you’re interested in the idea and would like to know more about it, you know where to find Hrvoje. (At one of the Split Tech City events, obviously.) 😉
Now, let’s see what he has to share with us about Katriga!
“The idea of a smart armchair was born from a personal need. I needed this type of armchair for my household due to lack of space and two playful children. So one day I decided to make my own armchair and after 4 months it was ready. It fit in perfectly and met all my expectations!”
“The main obstacle was that every single day a new obstacle in the construction of the armchair itself appeared.
I designed and built the armchair on my own – without a blueprint, idea to form, step by step.
I solved all the obstacles with creativity and resourcefulness. That was actually an additional motive for me – how to keep solving problems that I had not encountered before.”
“My biggest mistake was choosing the wrong people for the development of the product. People I trusted to do the work they promised to do, and who, in the end, delivered half-hearted results.”
“The best part is that you are creating something new and of value – a new product. A product that is also something you believe in. While the development of a startup as a company is a challenge and a risk.
Considering that I like challenges, this was a dream come true for me – to do something new, independently, creatively, and while simply enjoying every moment.
And nurturing some of the characteristics crucial for the development of a startup like creativity, resourcefulness, ability to do research, as well as dealing with uncertainty, struggles, and risk.”
“Considering that the plan is to make Katriga official, Split is more than a good place to do so because this city has grown so much in terms of its startup ecosystem and more and more content for the development of startups is being created here.”
“The advice I would give myself is to spend less time sitting in front of a laptop alone while creating a business plan, doing market research, etc. Instead, I would have focused more on participating in workshops, meetups, incubator programs, and the like.
Networking is key!”
“When the idea of a startup appears, the next step is the goal we want to achieve with that startup. We imagine where we want to be at some point in the future when the startup comes to life and shows certain results. That is a natural progression and it’s completely fine.
However, in my opinion, the journey is much more important than the goal itself. Because when we reach the goal, the journey ends.”
There you have it – a little back-story on this budding startup straight from its initiator! We’d like to thank Hrvoje for sharing Katriga’s story with us and wish him a lot of success in the future – with Katriga and anything else he sets his mind to. And lots of good networking, too! 😀
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